Amy Gosztyla joined the Yale staff as women's cross country, middle distance and distance coach in the summer of 2011. Under her coaching and leadership since then, the Yale women’s cross country and middle distance/distance team has experienced tremendous growth. In cross country, the team has recorded finishes higher than ever in the past decade. Soon after she started coaching at Yale, in the 2012 season, Gosztyla coached Yale to its best result at NCAA Regionals in six years and to its first national ranking since 2005. In 2015 and 2016, the women’s cross country team finished runner-up at the Ivy League Heptagonal Championship, the highest team finishes since 2002. At a national level, the team has also climbed up the rankings since she started at the program. The team has been ranked 22nd nationally or received votes in 2012, 2015, 2016, and 2017. In cross country alone, she has coached two NCAA Championship individual qualifiers, 11 NCAA All-Region athletes, and 13 All-Ivy athletes. In 2016, for the first time in over ten years, the team qualified for the NCAA National Championships and recorded a 30th place finish. In the middle distance and distance events on the track, Gosztyla’s coaching has led to three NCAA Championship qualifiers, three NCAA All-Americans, 18 NCAA first round qualifiers, one Ivy League record holder, two ECAC Champions, two Ivy League Champions, one Ivy League Championship winning relay. During her tenure, there have been five school records broken and 80 Top 10 Yale All-Time performances recorded. She has coached an astounding 193 ECAC qualifying performances and 23 All-East individual performances.
Off the track, her athletes at Yale have earned the Nelly Pratt Elliot Award (Yale’s student-athlete of the year), the Kiputh Student-Athlete Award for academic and athletic achievement, and the Ford Student-Athlete Community Service Award. She has coach seven USTFCCCA All-Academic teams, 15 USTFCCCA All-Academic individuals, and one All-Ivy Academic individual.
Gosztyla spent three years as an assistant at Harvard prior to coming to Yale. There, she worked primarily with the men's and women's middle distance and distance runners. During her time with the Crimson Gosztyla coached six NCAA Championship qualifiers, 13 NCAA Regional/First Round qualifiers, 97 ECAC/IC4A qualifiers and five Ivy League Heptagonal champions. Her runners set 10 school records, and under her guidance the women's cross country team finished as runners-up at the 2009 Ivy League Heptagonal championships.
Prior to joining the Harvard staff, Gosztyla was the assistant women's cross country and track and field coach at her alma mater, New Hampshire. In her one season as an assistant with the Wildcats, 2007-08, she helped develop the program's first women's cross country All-American in nearly 15 years. The UNH women's cross country team also won the ECAC University Championships. On the track, Gosztyla worked with the long sprinter and middle distance athletes. During the indoor and outdoor seasons, the Wildcats finished second in the America East Championships and were the New England Outdoor Championships runners-up. She coached the America East indoor 500-meter champion and 400-meter runner-up, as well as the school record-setting women's outdoor 4x400-meter relay team.
From 2005 to 2007 Gosztyla was the assistant men's and women's cross country and track and field coach at Stony Brook. She and head coach Andy Ronan were named America East Women's Cross Country Coaching Staff of the Year in 2005 and 2006, and the women's cross country team developed into an NCAA qualifier in 2007. Individually, Gosztyla helped coach four NCAA Regional qualifiers, 46 ECAC/IC4A qualifiers and three America East champions. Her runners set 20 school records, and the women's cross country team finished as conference runners-up twice.
Gosztyla was named America East Student-Athlete of the Year in 2002, and was honored by UNH that same year with the Jim Urqhart Award as the school's female student-athlete of the year. She was also named Most Outstanding Track Performer at the America East Outdoor Track and Field Championships and was the New England outdoor 1,500-meter champion that year. Gosztyla was a four-time America East all-conference selection in cross country and earned All-Northeast Region accolades as a junior in 1999. She was a six-time America East champion in indoor and outdoor track, and at one point held seven school records. She served as team captain from 1998 through 2002.
Gosztyla graduated magna cum laude from New Hampshire in May 2001 with a bachelor's degree in nutritional sciences. She earned her master's degree in exercise science summa cum laude from the same school in May 2004, earning the school's Basil Mott Leadership Award along the way.
